HISTORY. In 1614 Adrian Block, a native of Holland, discovered and explored the Connecticut River, hut it was nut till 1633 that the Dutch of New Amsterdam began a trading post at Suek iaug (Hartford). Two years earlier the soil from Narragansett Bay to the Paeifie Ocean was granted by the Earl of Warwick to Lord Say and Sele. and others, but the transfer apparently- bad no legal basis. In 1633 traders from Plymouth visited the site of Windsor. Wethersfield in 1634. and Windsor and Hartford in the following year, were settled by emigrants from Massachu setts Bay. In 1635 the Say and Sele patentees sent over John Winthrop, Jr., to act as Gover nor. He built a fort at Saybrook, preventing the Dutch from getting control of the Connecticut, and gave the settlers in the upper valley a con ditional permission to remain. Desire for a more democratic government eaused a new exodus from Massachusetts, and in 1636 Ilartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield received their chief bodies of immigrants. In 1638-39 the three towns united in an independent comntonwealth and adopted a thoroughly democratic constitu tion. The Massachusetts system of town govern ment, transplanted to Connecticut, attained its fullest development in the three upper settle ments, with which Springfield (Agawam) re mained nominally associated till 1641. War with the Pequots, the most powerful of the In dian tribes, in 1637, led to their extermination. and the progress of colonization was never again hindered by the enmity of the natives. In 1638 New Haven was founded by a Puritan colony under the Rev. John Davenport. and from 1638 to 1640 Milford, Guilford, and Stamford on the mainland and Southold on Long Island were settled. Together with Branford these towns were united, between 1643 and 1651, into one 'jurisdiction,' known subsequently as the New haven Colony, as opposed to the upper settle ments, which constituted the Connecticut Col ony. The laws of the Old Testament were made the rule for all courts. A somewhat similar code of laws in Connecticut gave rise in after years to the nickname 'blue laws' (q.v.), all hough Connecticut, unlike New liaven, did not restrict the franchise and the holding of office to church members. In 1644 Connecticut bought the colony of Saybrook from Say and Sele, and gradually (1644-62), by purchase and colonization, acquired the greater part of the present State and a considerable portion of Long Island. In 1657 John Winthrop. Jr., was chosen Governor of Connecticut, and by his skill in diplomacy procured, in 1662, a charter front Charles II. granting absolute autonomy to that Colony. By this charter New Haven was incor porated with Connecticut. in spite of the most vehement opposition on the part of the former. New Haven, nevertheless, was forced to submit (1664). In October, 1687, Sir Edmund Andros came to Ilartford and demanded] the charter from the General Assembly, Ina it was carried away and secreted till 16S9. (See CHARTER OAK.) From 1687 to 1689, however, the Colony was sub ject to the despotic rule of Andros. In 1708 the Congregational Church system was established by the adoption of the Saybrook plat fmm, and this was supplemented by the Act of 1742. Though other denominations were tolerated, Church and State for a long time remained close ly connected. and secular and religious affairs were under the control of the same authorities. in 1754 Connecticut bought front the Indians a large tract of land in the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania and proceeded to settle it, but was compelled in 1782 to surrender it to Pennsyl vania. In 1786 the Colony relinquished its char ter rights to the territory west of its present limits and received in return the 'Western serve (q.v.). Emigration to the western lands, as well as to Vermont and New York, was active.
The passage of the Stamp Act was vigorously denounced by the General Assembly; in May, 1770 the Colony was declared released from its allegiance to England, and in October Connecti cut was constituted an independent State. It contributed more than 30,000 men to the Revolutionary Army, and its Governor, Jona than Trumbull, was one of Washington's most trusted advisers. In 1777 the British burned Danbury, and in 1779 pillaged New Haven. Forts Griswold and Trumbull, at New London, were taken on September 6, 1781, by Benedict Arnold, and the town was destroyed. In the framing of the Federal Constitution Con necticut took a prominent part, and to its dele gates was due the adoption of that feature of the Constitution which provides for State represen tation in the Upper House of Congress and pro portionate representation in the Lower. Connecti cut was always a stronghold of federalism; it strongly opposed the War of 1812, and its Capi tol was the meeting-place of the celebrated Hart ford Convention (q.v.). In 1818 a new constitu tion was framed, Church and State were sepa rated, and the franchise was widely extended. The General Assembly was divided into a Senate and a House of Ilepresentatives. The conservative and theocratic character of the government be came greatly modified as the State developed from an agricultural region into a commercial and industrial centre. The shrewdness of the trader and the preNninent ingenuity of the Connecticut mechanic raised the State to a high degree of prosperity. During the Civil War Connecticut gave to the Union cause nearly 60,000 troops and the services of her great War Governor, Buckingham. Progress was rapid after the war. In the matter of public instruction the State took one of the foremost places in the Union, if not the foremost, devoting the entire proceeds from the sale of its public lands to the support of the free schools. In the readjustment, however, of the balance of political power in con formity with changed political conditions, no like spirit of progress was shown, and in 1901 the necessity of electoral reform was discussed at length in the press of the State. Representa tion in the Lower House being based on the old township divisions and not on population, it hap pened that great cities like New Haven and Bridgeport were dominated by rural communities with one-tenth their population. In many cases, a state of things prevailed not far removed from con.ditions in England before the Reform Bill of 1S32. The agitation resulted in the calling of a constitutional convention, which met in January, 1902, and drew up a scheme of redistribution which was submitted to the people on June 16. The measure provided for one representative from every town with a population of less than 2000, two representatives for towns between 20.000 and 50,000. three for towns between 50.000 and 100,000. and four for all cities over 100.000, with one additional for every 50,000 inhabitants above that number. The effect of the measure would have been to deprive some towns of one representative each and to assign these to the large towns. The plan, however, satisfied neither the conservatives nor the advocates of reform, and was voted down. In national elections, Con neeticut has been in general Federalist. Whig, and Republican; but it. cast its vote for Monroe in 1820, for Van Buren in 1830, for Pier,e in 1852, for Tilden in 1876, and for Cleveland in 1884, 1888, and 1892. In State election's it is doubtful.
Consult : Dwight, History of Connecticut (New York, 1841) : Holister, The History of Connecticut (New Haven, 1855) : Trumbull. The Colonial Records of Connecticut '( Hartford, 1850-59) ; The Republic of .\ err Huren (Baltimore, 1886) ; Johnston, Connect ;rut (Bos ton, 1887), which contains a bibliography.